Telling Time Notes
Telling time in Spanish is easy, when you take it step by step. Let’s get started!
To ask “What time is it?”, we say ¿Qué hora es? (literally “what hour is it?”)
To answer we might respond with a variety of answers. Look at the examples:
Es la una. It’s one o’clock
Es la una y media It’s 1:30
Son las dos y diez it’s 2:10
Son las tres menos diez It’s 10 ‘till three
Es mediodia. It’s noon
Es medianoche. It’s midnight.
In Spanish “Ser” is used to express time. Use “es” for one o’clock, noon, and midnight. Use “son” for any other time.
Es la una. It’s one o’clock
Es mediodía. It’s noon
Es medianoche. It’s midnight.
Son las cinco. It’s five o’clock
Son las once. It’s eleven o’clock.
Son las nueve. It’s nine o’clock
The feminine article (la, las) is used before the hour because it refers to "la hora."
Es la una. It's one o'clock.
Son las dos. It's two o'clock.
Minutes are added to the hour using the word y (and). You add minutes until you get to the half hour.
Es la una y cinco. It's five minutes past one. (it’s 1:05)
Son las tres y doce. It's twelve minutes past three. (It’s 3:12)
Minutes are subtracted from the hour using the word menos (less). Minutes are subtracted between the half hour and hour marks.
Es la una menos cinco. It's five minutes till one. (12:55)
Son las tres menos doce. It's twelve minutes till three. (2:48)
You can also use the words media (half) and cuarto (quarter).
Es la una y media. It's half past one or 1:30.
Son las dos y cuarto. It's quarter past two or 2:15.
Son las tres menos cuarto. It's quarter till three or 2:45.
To differentiate between a.m. and p.m. use the expressions de la mañana, de la tarde and de la noche.
Son las dos de la tarde. It's two in the afternoon.
Son las dos de la mañana. It's two in the morning.
Son las diez de la noche. It's ten in the evening.
So, a formula for time might look like this:
(Es/son) + (la/las) + (hour) + (y/menos) + (minutes) + (time of day)
MORE ¿Qué hora es? What time is it?
· In Spanish, time is feminine because the word for hour is la hora.
· The verb ser is used to tell time. Since there must be subject-verb agreement, one o'clock would be singular and two o'clock, three o'clock, etc. would be plural. This is different from the English.
Es la una It is 1:00 Son las dos It is 2:00
Son las cinco It is 5:00
Son las nueve It is 9:00
• To express the half hour in English we say six-thirty or half past six. The quarter hour can be six-fifteen or a quarter past six. Spanish has the same options.
Son las seis y treinta six -thirty Son las seis y media half past six (6:30)
Son las seis y quince six -fifteen Son las seis y cuarto a quarter past six (6:15)
• Son las ocho y dieciséis It's 8:16 Son las tres y veintinueve It's 3:29
• In English, 6:40 can be expressed as six-forty or twenty minutes before seven.
In Spanish, they would say the equivalent of "it is 7 less twenty
Son las siete menos veinte (minutos) It's 6:40
Son las diez menos quince or It's 9:45
Son las diez menos cuarto
• We have other expressions we use with time and so do Spanish speakers.
Es mediodía * It's noon Es medianoche It's midnight
* This is masculine because día is a masculine word even though it ends in a, and we
are saying it is the middle of the day. Noche is feminine, hence, medianoche, the
middle of the night.
• To express a.m. or p.m., use mañana or tarde.
Es la una de la mañana. It's 1:00 a.m. Son las tres de la tarde. It's 3:00 p.m